1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a recording medium, and a program. More particularly, the invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a recording medium, and a program for managing information recorded on recording media such as optical discs in such a manner that the recorded information may be displayed in an easy-to-view format, sorted out, and searched for with ease.
2. Background Art
Today, diverse recording media such as magnetic discs, optical discs, magneto-optical discs, and semiconductor memories are coming-into general use. Illustratively, users can record desired music or picture data to the recording medium, reproduce recorded music or picture data from the medium, or edit the recorded data through the intervention of the medium.
However, one disadvantage has been recognized for the disc media: they have no IDs of their own, so that there has been no viable method by which to manage the discs using IDs.
A method has been proposed which allows users to write any distinguishable IDs to their own AV (audio visual) apparatus for disc management. A disadvantage of this method is that since the IDs are written to an internal memory of each apparatus, the discs involved can be managed by that apparatus alone and not by any other AV apparatus, at least not in the same manner.
Where a single disc is to be shared by a plurality of users, it is preferred that the disc be furnished with different additional information specific to each user or to each AV apparatus to be used.
If data are desired to be recorded to a given disc and if that disc is not immediately available for loading into the AV apparatus at hand, it is desirable that the data be retained temporarily on an internal hard disc or the like of the apparatus for management purposes.